S. Korea's initial jobless claims keep downward trend in June

South Korea's initial jobless claims roughly kept a downward trend last month, indicating a labor market recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic shock, a government report showed Monday.

The number of those who newly applied for job-seeking benefits was 91,000 in June, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

It has been on the decline after logging 149,000 in March, 103,000 in April and 86,000 in May respectively.

The combined number of job-seeking benefit receivers continued to fall from 759,000 in March to 739,000 in April, 704,000 in May and 693,000 in June each.

The continued slide was attributable to the recovery from an economic downturn, caused by the pandemic.

The job-seeking benefit is offered by the government to help the unemployed seek jobs. It is financed by the state employment insurance fund.

The total amount of job-seeking benefit payment came in at 1.09 trillion won (950.3 million US dollars) in June, topping 1 trillion won (871.8 million US dollars) for the fifth consecutive month.